Foodborne pathogens are of major public health concern throughout the world. Raw and under-cooked poultry meat is a rich source of E.coli, Salmonella, Shigella and Campylobacter. These pathogens can be transmitted to humans by consuming contaminated food and can lead to the risk of foodborne illness. Enterobacteriacea family includes bacteria residing in intestinal tract of warm blooded animals. The member bacteria of this family can contaminate meat during slaughtering and can be transmitted to human through food chain. Among them E. coli, Salmonella and Shigella are major pathogens. Pathogenic strains of E. coli have special adhesion fimbriae, through which they can bind with intestinal mucosa, damaging the absorptive surface of intestine, leading to diarrhea. Salmonella, being the normal microbiota of poultry and animals, is one of the major causes of foodborne illness throughout the world. During 1988 to 2007, a of total 4,093 foodborne outbreaks were recorded globally, among them Salmonella enteritidis outbreaks was the one that frequently occurred in European Union while outbreaks due to E. coli was at top in Canada.
Pakistan is exporting meat to various countries and during 2012 Pakistan has earned $123.61 million through meat export. In order to increase export of quality meat, it is necessary that meat should be free from foodborne pathogens.
Conventional detection and identification methods of foodborne bacteria, commonly used in clinical laboratories, are laborious and time consuming. Other drawbacks include high cost and poor yield of bacteria. Multiplex PCR can be used for the simultaneous amplification of two or more different genome by using multiple primers in same reaction mixture. Multiplex PCR amplification is an efficient, sensitive, specific, selective and quick method for the simultaneous detection of pathogens in meat even in lower amount.
To prevent the outbreaks of foodborne illnesses rapid detection of foodborne pathogens is necessary. Conventional culturing method takes more than 14 days while direct and simultaneous detection of multiple pathogens is rapid method for better food safety and inspires the quality assurance standards. Further focusing on implementation of HACCP system, increased hygiene at slaughtering and meat processing units and consumer education is essential to reduce the presence of foodborne bacterial pathogens at retail level.
AMNA KANWAL, DR ALI AHMED SHEIKH, IQRA SAFDAR
UVAS, Lahore
